


and now i sink into your skin and kiss your bones and wonder if you lied.

by orphan_account



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types
Genre: Gender-neutral Reader, Mastermind Naegi Makoto, Multi, Reader-Insert, how could i do this to my bby protag, true despair
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-25
Updated: 2015-09-25
Packaged: 2018-04-23 09:36:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4871881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Why are you looking at me like that, ______?”</p>
<p>  <i>Because you killed them.</i></p>
<p>  <i>Because you betrayed us.</i></p>
<p>  <i>Because I love you.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	and now i sink into your skin and kiss your bones and wonder if you lied.

**Author's Note:**

> **Beckett:** aLSO NALY CAN I JUST SAY THAT MASTERMIND!NAEGI IS MY LIFEBLOOD  
>  **Beckett:** LIKE  
>  **Beckett:** SERIOUSLY  
>  **Beckett:** IT IS MY JAM  
>  **Beckett:** LIKE I LOVE HIM AS MY SWEET AMAZING PROTAG BUT YOOOOOO PROTAGS WHO TURN OUT TO BE ANTAGS ARE MY FAVOURITE THING  
>  **Beckett:** LIKE IT REALLY KICKS THE PLAYERS IN THE GUT BECAUSE THE PROTAGONIST, THE PLAYER CHARACTER, IS THE ONE PERSON THE PLAYER TRUSTS IMPLICITLY THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE GAME  
>  **Beckett:** AND THEN IT TURNS OUT THEYVE BEEN DECEIVING EVERYONE  
>  **Beckett:** INCLUDING YOU  
>  **Beckett:** AND THAT IS THE MOST GUT WRENCHING SENSE OF BETRAYAL YOU CAN GET FROM GAMING  
>  **Beckett:** ALSO I CAN JUST SEE IT REALLY WELL FOR MAKOTO??? LIKE I CAN SEE HIM UNVEILING IT AND BEING LIKE

You feel sick.

The trial was reaching its climax, all the evidence revealed and deductions made and _everything_ had pointed to a single, definite conclusion and, and…

This isn’t how it was supposed to go.

Across the room, Makoto grins.

“Wow! Pretty surprising, isn’t it, you guys?” He averts his gaze bashfully, almost looking embarrassed under the intense heat of their own. “I mean, for such a boring, unremarkable person, I certainly did well in playing all of the roles in this charade!”

This is _wrong_.

His expression shifts slightly as he lifts a finger up to hover beside his head. Condescendence doesn’t _fit_ on his face. “I bet when we started this adventure most of you were convinced I’d be one of the measly side characters who was so uninteresting he got killed off right away, but I really rose through the ranks, didn't I?”

“Naegi-kun…” you start weakly, but you don’t have anything to say. What can you say? Ask him if it’s true, when the truth is staring you in the face? When he openly brags about the murders of your friends? When he looks at you like he _knows_ how much he means _(meant?)_ to you?

Makoto continues as if you hadn’t spoken. “I mean, there were certainly other, more likely candidates for whom would get to play the protagonist in this little game; like you, Kirigiri-san!”

You didn’t think Kyouko’s gaze could get any colder, but the evidence contrary stares Makoto in the face the second he addresses her. Any shock or betrayal she had felt at this revelation of Makoto’s nature has been quickly buried under a cool, piercing mask.

“So aloof, so distant, one look just _screams_ 'tragic backstory'.” he continues, gesturing wildly. “Or you, Togami-kun!”

Byakuya’s lips twist in disgust.

“With all your over-confident speeches about 'killing the mastermind', _you_ should have been the protagonist!” Makoto leans forward, his elbows resting on his podium and palms supporting his chin. “Or Ishimaru-kun, with  _his_ totally unforgettable personality!”

An over-exaggerated sigh escapes his lips, a barely hidden smile pulling at the corners. “Too bad he's dead.”

Something _twists_ inside your stomach.

_This can’t be happening._

“But no, instead of all these talented, amazing people that we were surrounded by, to who did you all turn to pick you up when you fell? To whom did you confide in, follow, and trust, blindly and unconditionally?”

In your mind’s eye, you picture the boy who had smiled at you, the boy who had calmed you, the boy who had brought you peace in this hellhole; the same boy standing in the courtroom across from you.

“Average, boring, untalented, Makoto Naegi.”

The boy you had fallen in love with.

His bashful smile, the one you had all become so accustomed to, the one that had once brought you something almost akin to comfort, now makes your skin crawl.

“And better yet, your trust was completely misplaced! It was me all along!” He scratches his cheek, the perfect picture of modesty, and his words don’t match his expression at all. “I bet no-one saw it coming; no one thought that someone so completely _normal_ and _uninteresting_ could have put together this scheme, no-one once looked at me and thought that I could ever be clever enough to be called the Mastermind!”

A chuckle bubbles up in his throat, and he seems to almost choke on it. A glint of something manic flits through his eyes.

And then he looks at you, and as always it feels like the entire courtroom has disappeared but not like it usually does – not like it _should_ – and you never thought that he could send such cold dread through your veins like this.

“Why are you looking at me like that, ______?”

You expected a polite honorific, the same address he used for the other two but he keeps throwing you off guard and the way your first name sounds rolling off his tongue sends shivers through your skin.

_Because you killed them._

_Because you betrayed us._

_Because I love you._

“Ah… is it perhaps, you feel deceived?”

He tilts his head quizzically, pale brown hair falling into his eyes, as if you’re a puzzle he can’t quite figure out. Eventually, he smiles. “You know, I _do_ like you, ______. Even if I lied about everything else, I can’t deny that your constant praise and insistence that I was much more than I thought made me grow quite fond of you!”

You force yourself to speak past the bile in your throat. “W-Was… Was it all fake, then? Our friendship?”

Makoto makes a sound halfway between a sob and a giggle. “Not at all, and that’s exactly the problem!”

“…What?” You blink at him, but he’s not looking at you anymore. His eyes are fixed on his podium, hands fisted in his hair.

“Being around you, ______... it’s the happiest, the most hopeful I’ve been in years! Hope so horrifically bright it practically consumes my being!” he giggles jovially. “And that’s why… if something were to happen to you, ______... “

For a second, you feel a spark of hope in your chest.

He looks up at you, his eyes bright with unshed tears and a Cheshire grin across his face. “I think that would be the most beautiful, most _wonderful_ despair I could possibly be lucky enough to experience!”

The spark dies swiftly.

And then, he laughs. Gasping, breathless, and almost sobbing, he clutches his podium for support to stop his knees giving out and all you can do is watch as he unravels before your very eyes.

And when he stops, his voice is low and it feels like he’s no longer addressing anyone but himself.

“Everything. Everything was me. I started the apocalypse, but kept you locked up and safe. I gained your trust and then killed our friends. I lead you through the trials, the dark, gave you  _so much hope_ , only to betray you by snatching it out from under your feet at the last moment.”

He stares intently at his hands held up in front of him, as if admiring the work they had done. They clench into fists and his gaze returns to the horrified faces around the courtroom. He smiles again.

It's nothing like the smile of the boy you once thought you knew, the one they once thought was so predictable, so unbelievably _normal,_ the one that you knew was really extraordinary but _never like this_. Nothing like the friend, the almost lover you thought you had.

“Your beloved, trustworthy protagonist, the one who gave you all that Hope... turned out to be the antagonist you all hated so much. The cause of all your misery.”

This smile is twisted into all the wrong shapes; gleeful and miserable, modesty and superiority, insanity and cold reason all at once and it makes your stomach turn.

It's the smile of someone who is completely unhinged. Someone who is beyond saving. Someone who has seen the worst of the worst and decided to _best_ it.

“Such an anguishing betrayal...”

Someone who has been destroyed inside and out and loved every fucking minute of it.

“Isn’t that... just the purest form of despair?”


End file.
